The Day of Doom
by justinfinchfletchley
Summary: This story comes at the end of the series and is about what would happen if Sauron regained the Ring. Please R


"Precious, precious, precious!" Gollum cried. "My precious! O my precious!" And with that, even as his eyes were lifted up to gloat on his prize, he stepped too far, toppled, wavered for a moment on the brink, and then with a shriek he fell. Sam rushed over to the edge to watch the creature fall into the fire below. There was a sudden rush of wind above him and, glancing up, threw himself from the edge just in time, as a black shape streaked into the chasm. It snatched the descending Gollum from midair, and rose again. Sam then saw that it was a Nazgûl come to rescue the Ring for its master. Sam turned to Frodo, to take him up, to flee, but even as these wild thoughts rushed through his head, he saw he was too late. For there were the other eight Ringwraiths standing in the entrance, their beasts halted a short distance away.

"You shall accompany us back to our master so he can see the face of those who almost thwarted him," the wraiths hissed in unison.

Frodo, who up until this time had remained silent, in a state of shock, screamed in agony as the dormant wound made by the Morgul-knife burned as if on fire. He clawed his shoulder with his maimed hand and the Nazgûl laughed. Sam called out to his master, but Frodo did not hear him. He was rocking back and forth on the ground, his hand still clutched to his shoulder. Two Nazgûl moved toward Frodo, but Sam grabbed Sting, which was lying on the ground near him. He flung himself in front of his master, willing to stand and fight, powerful though the Nazgûl might be. The two approaching Nazgûl cackled and drew their swords. Sam felt a wave of foreboding and a rush of adrenaline, so he hurled his blade at his advancing foes. Its point buried itself deep inside the hood of one and the wraith crumpled into a heap. There was a sudden pressure around Sam's neck at that instant and he also collapsed, realizing only too late that the Nazgûl that had caught Gollum out of midair had come at him from behind and grabbed him. Sam then passed out.

When he came to, Sam found himself lying on a cold marble floor looking up into the black sky. He tried to sit up, but found he could not, due to the ropes that were lashed around his midriff. He then looked to both sides; on his right lay Frodo, also tied to the floor, but on his left was-

"In the name of the Valar," Sam cursed. For he found himself staring into the one thing he feared above all else, the Eye. Next to it was standing the king of the Nazgûl, the one who had grabbed Sam by the neck in the Cracks of Doom. He was holding the One Ring in his right hand and staring directly into the Eye.

"I have found it for you, master," it hissed. "I have saved it from the fires of Orodruin and killed the whelp who stole it." At this, Sam looked quickly over to Frodo, but he was still alive. Then Sam understood that the wraith must have been talking about Gollum. _Well, at least he's dead_, Sam found himself thinking. His sudden movement of looking towards Frodo had apparently caught the Nazgûl's attention, because it was walking over to Sam. It bent down, undid Sam's bonds, and forced the hobbit to his feet.

"It looks like you will be a witness to my master's return," it hissed moving back over to the Eye. Sam glanced cautiously down at Frodo, but he was still out cold. "Now we must wait until the other one wakes up."

Not long after that, Frodo began to stir. He tried to sit up, but had the same trouble as Sam. The wraith waved his hands, the ropes broke, and Frodo got to his feet, helped by Sam.

The Nazgûl said to the both of them, "Now you shall watch as your entire journey here becomes fruitless." With that, the wraith turned to the Eye and cast the Ring into it. There was an explosion that threw Frodo and Sam to the floor and when they sat up, they found themselves looking at a tall man wearing black armor that covered his entire body. Both Frodo and Sam gasped while the man looked over his entire body. Then, he said something in a foreign tongue that neither Frodo nor Sam understood to the Nazgûl standing before him. The wraith turned to the two hobbits, however, and spoke to them in the Common Tongue. "My master has bidden me to lead you to the dungeons so that you can witness one final event before you are killed."

The Nazgûl took them by their cloaks and led them down countless flights of stairs until they reached the dungeons. Here' they were taken through numerous corridors lined with cells containing both man and beast. They finally stopped in a dimly lit room with a table in the middle, on which a man was lying, his shirt lying on the ground under the table, torn to shreds. Frodo and Sam could see red lines running across the man's neck and chest. The two hobbits tried to make out who the man was, but it wasn't until he lifted his face in a fit of agony that they recognized him.

"Strider!" Sam yelled, and the Witch King laughed.

"We captured this one outside the Black Gate shortly after we regained the Ring. He was attempting to put up s fight against us, but he failed miserably. His companions are all either dead or imprisoned."

Sam now had tears in his eyes as he became conscious of all the bad things that had happened in the past couple of hours. He tried to think of some way to escape this evil, but no plan came to mind. He looked over to Frodo and tried to read the expression on his face but Frodo was simply staring open-mouthed at the sight before him.

The Nazgûl spoke again. "We thought we'd have a little fun before we killed him. Carry on with your task." Several orcs came forward at that last command and began to whip Aragorn some more, all over his body. As they whipped, boils began to break out all over his body. At the fall of each stroke, Sam cried out, tears falling from his eyes in a steady stream. Frodo came out of his stupor when the whips fell and was also weeping. One of the orcs, bored with the proceedings, pulled out a sharp knife and grabbed one of Aragorn's hands. He then began to cut large chunks off of the man's hand. Every so often, the bloody man would pass out, and the orc would wait until he regained consciousness before starting to cut the victim's fingers again. Sam to close his eyes then, but when Aragorn shrieked, he opened them wide. Another orc dug his nails into the man's eyes and, with a squelching sound, it pulled them out, providing another outlet for blood to flow. When the orc had pulled out the eyes, one of them had rolled over to Frodo and Sam, both of whom vomited and shut their eyes.

The hobbits were forced to listen to their friend scream for a long time before the Nazgûl took them by their cloaks again and led them up through the tower to where Sauron still stood. The black figure spoke to the Nazgûl in the foreign language once more, and the Ringwraith translated. "My master says that we have let you live long enough. It walked over to the hobbits, who were paralyzed in fright, lifted them by their necks and hurled them over the edge of the tower. As he fell, Sam cursed the ring, and everything else that had brought them to this point. Even as his body smashed onto the rocks below, he wished he were back in the Shire, tending Mr. Frodo's garden. But then he thought no more.


End file.
